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OpenAI received about $11 billion by November 6, 2026, the first tranche of a round priced at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, CFO Sarah Friar confirmed on television. SoftBank and Abu Dhabi's MGX participated, with reports suggesting the round could eventually grow to $20 billion or more, though remaining terms and lead investors haven't been disclosed. OpenAI did not comment on the funding.
Major Asian tech and chip stocks sold off sharply Friday after the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% overnight and entered correction territory. SK Hynix, Samsung, TSMC, SoftBank, Advantest and Tokyo Electron all posted double-digit or near-double-digit losses, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropping 12.2% in the prior session.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said SoftBank plans $50 billion in investments in Malaysia, covering AI, new technologies and data centers. Anwar said SoftBank's Masayoshi Son identified sites in Kuching, Sarawak and peninsular Malaysia after a video call between the two leaders. The move follows SoftBank's recent framework agreement with Grab and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad to explore AI and digital infrastructure in Sarawak.
SK Hynix shares fell more than 10% and Samsung Electronics dropped 7.1% as an Asian tech sell-off spread Thursday, hitting LG Innotek, Seoul Semiconductor, Samsung SDI, SoftBank, Advantest, Tokyo Electron and Renesas. The rout followed a Wall Street decline after stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation data raised fears of further Federal Reserve rate hikes, with the Nasdaq down 1.88% and the S&P 500 down 1.11%.
SK Hynix fell more than 8% and Samsung Electronics dropped 7.9%, both hitting their lowest intraday levels since August, as a US semiconductor sell-off spread to Asian markets. SoftBank Group shares sank over 8% in Japan, dragging down chip-related names including Tokyo Electron, Advantest, Lasertec, Disco and Renesas Electronics. The moves followed a 0.44% Nasdaq decline and a 3.9% drop in Micron Technology after China's ChangXin Memory Technologies reported progress on a new chip architecture.
Masayoshi Son is seeking up to $100 billion from Middle Eastern investors, including senior UAE figures, to launch a fund that would acquire established companies and upgrade them with AI and robotics, the Financial Times reports. The fund would differ from SoftBank's prior vehicles by buying operating businesses rather than funding tech startups, with SoftBank's Roze robotics division expected to play a role, though neither the fund's formation nor its financing is confirmed.
IDC Frontier, a SoftBank Group subsidiary, reported that its IDCF Cloud service suffered a ransomware attack beginning October 7 at 3:40 AM local time, disrupting its East Japan Region 1 data center cluster. The company said 495 businesses and local government bodies using the cloud platform were affected, and it has disabled management console access across all regions while checking security.
The 10-year Treasury yield has climbed to about 5.17%, its highest level since 2007, pushing up the cost of debt for AI infrastructure companies. JPMorgan Chase has estimated $4.1 trillion in AI-related debt could be issued through 2030, and this week SoftBank sold $11.1 billion in junk bonds with yields as high as 9.75% for a 7-year tranche.
Oracle Corp Japan reported record fiscal first-quarter results, with net sales up 13% to 74.86 billion yen and net profit up 23.2% to 18.25 billion yen for the June-August period. Cloud revenue rose 31.7%, now accounting for 33.6% of total sales, and the company kept its full-year sales growth outlook at 6-10%. The stock jump came even as Oracle's U.S.-listed shares fell more than 3% after the company issued a force majeure notice related to its New Mexico data center project.
SoftBank Group raised $11.1 billion through senior notes—$10 billion in dollar-denominated bonds and 1 billion euros in euro-denominated notes. The company said the proceeds will cover a $10 billion payment due for the third and final tranche of its $30 billion follow-on investment in OpenAI, expected to close October 1, with the remainder going toward general corporate purposes. SoftBank shares rose more than 7% when Japanese markets reopened after a three-day holiday.
SB Energy, a data center infrastructure company backed by SoftBank, Nvidia and OpenAI, has filed for an initial public offering with the SEC. The filing discloses net losses of about $3.2 billion for the first half of 2026 against roughly $139 million in revenue, mostly from its legacy energy business, while none of its planned AI data centers are yet operational.
upGrad has completed an all-stock acquisition of Unacademy, valuing the Bengaluru-based edtech startup at roughly $206 million—about 94% below its 2021 peak valuation of $3.44 billion. CEO Gaurav Munjal confirmed the deal's closing on X, noting that Unacademy shareholders received upGrad shares while angel investors were cashed out.